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I am so very tired of hearing representatives from or defenders of teachers' unions argue that teacher seniority is the only or best way to decide who gets laid off.  This is one of the big reasons why we took our child and donations of time and money out of the public-school system.  I think that teachers do amazing work and that their salaries should be raised by at least 50 percent and that they should have much more autonomy in how they go about their work.  But this gains need to accompanied by a system of accountability that will reward the people who most deserve it.

posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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Thank you very much for tackling this subject! I decided while researching Oregon's Promise: An Interpretive History (published by OSU Press in 2003), that Oregon's urban/rural divide is extremely important. I grew up 1.5 miles south of Fort Clatsop, where our family had its own water system, and now live in trendy NE Portland, where many families think nothing of spending $1,500 a year for a child in elementary school to play classic soccer. We notice the political and cultural differences between urban and rural, and they are profound. But many of those differences are rooted in economic differences. In 1999 residents of the 3 counties that make up the Portland Metro area had per capita incomes that were nearly three times as high as those of residents in Gilliam County, for example. I don't think many of us living in urban Oregon know this.

All best wishes,

David

posted 5 years, 1 month ago
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